Quotes from Bobby Riggs

If I can't play for big money, I play for a little money. And if I can't play for a little money, I stay in bed that day.

I've got to have a bet going in order to play my best.

If you're betting all the time, everything is just another bet. You don't even think about the money after you've made the arrangements. You're used to it.

My biggest problem is overconfidence.

If I am to be a chauvinist pig, I want to be the number one pig.

I'm out to prove that a guy 55 years old, with one foot in the grave, can play with the best woman in the world and maybe beat her. It'll be a big boost for men's superiority.

The man is king. The man is supreme.

I like to bet on as close to a sure thing as you can find.

The bigger the bet, the better I played.

I am the finest defensive player in the game.

I couldn't care less about clothes or cars.

No woman ever lived who could compete with a man on an equal basis - even a 55-year-old man. There's a lot of talk about Women's Lib. They feel they're worth as much as the guys, but they can't play a lick if they can't beat a 55-year-old guy.

I don't want to be the guy who sits on a front porch with a mint julep in his hand and rocks his life away.

All my life, everything has been a contest.

Women should do kitchen work and take care of babies.

The best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot.

It's no disgrace to play against the world's champions and lose by one service break in the last two sets.

This Martina Navratilova is a real champion, but with the proper training, I can make miracles happen.

Women's tennis? I think it stinks. They hit the ball back and forth, have a lot of nice volleys, and you can see some pretty legs. But it's night and day compared to men's tennis.

Billie Jean King is one of the all-time tennis greats; she's one of the superstars. She's ready for the big one, but she doesn't stand a chance against me. Women's tennis is so far beneath men's tennis; that's what makes the contest with a 55-year-old man the greatest contest of all time.

Senior tennis is like the younger game in slow motion. It is much more of a backcourt game. The player who had a big game in his prime finds it harder to play that same game as a senior. But any senior who could lob well when he was young can still hit a good lob.

When I don't enjoy it anymore, I'll stop. But I think as long as people want me to be where the action is, I'll be there. I just love to play tennis.

The drop shots and lobs are very effective in senior tennis.

The proudest thing I have ever done was to win the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at Wimbledon.